Thursday, 4 June 2009

TASTE OF SUMMER

I recently read that instead of moaning about the heat of summer, we should watch out for its delights and pleasures. Though one may question this apparent oxymoron, when we look around there certainly are pleasing sights. The shade giving trees on the streets of Chennai are blooming, and are a visual treat. The golden acacia has bloomed and now its brown pods stand silhouetted against the sky. And countless other trees, like the laburnum, with mauve and lavender flowers have bloomed and subsided. The Mayflower, or the flame of the forest, (gul mohur), true to its name sent out its first buds in May.But mangoes are the taste of summer.

We have a few trees in our compound, all of which grew from the seeds thrown out after the children ate the juicy flesh. Each tree bears a different type of mango, and over the years we have learnt to distinguish their tastes and their varying uses. One of the trees, the oldest, has fruits which are not at all sour when green, and so can be eaten like a salad vegetable. We thought the fruit may not taste very sweet when ripe. But it turned out to be as sweet as it is pretty with its rosy tinge as it ripened.

The parrots love them, and get to them before we do. The appearance of this fruit is really a visual pleasure - a text book pictorial representation of a mango.

This is one of the oldest. Another old tree bears fruit that is dreadfully sour when green, and so is used for pickling, as it is not at all tasty when it ripens.

A latecomer tree was a surprise. Its green fruit is very sour, but turned out to be very delicious when ripened. Folks in the know say that the more sour it is when it is green, the sweeter it is when it is ripe. We plucked the mangoes and ripened them, and shared them with friends. They don’t look as big or attractive as the big ones in the market, but were definitely as tasty and sweet.

The mango season is almost over, but one tree is confused, pushing forth new blooms , even while there are biggish mangoes on its branches. This is the tree, whose branch collapsed and down it fell with a whole lot of unripe mangoes, unfortunately too young to be ripened. Surely it was not due to the weight of the young mangoes! We salvaged what we could and distributed them.

The ripening fruits on the trees are pounced on by the squirrels and birds alike, and knock them down. Some of them fall on our neighbour’s asbestos sheet covered shed, with big plonks. We have now got used to this thwack/squelch sound. Our neighpour’s tree, in return, sheds its fruit into our compound, but without any sound effects. Unfortunately the fruits crack when they fall, and cannot really be used.

The markets are flooded by ripe mangoes. I saw them being transported on our busy road on a bullock cart, and and a fish cart.

Amazing. We too had one tree that grew out of a seed thrown into the yard more than 50 years ago. The fruits were very delicious and non-fibrous thus making a good pickle and when ripe, was very juicy and tasty. Situations saw that we moved out of this house last year and the neighbours observe that this beloved tree had no flowering at all! Can they 'feel' our absence?

Lovely pictures of the trees and mango. We get ones from Thailand here in Singapore and they are quite good too. However, the ones back home are sweeter and juicier for sure!The variety one gets in India, I am sure, one cannot get anywhere else.

wow,the pictures are mouth watering.mango is one fruit i can never ever get tired of eating.the last picture is funny:),and so is the comment by devika about seeing such a scene for the first time:)right now my son is in chennai enjoying vacation with his cousins. we will be going tomorrow to pick him up.

Summer season is always associated with fruits like mangoes, water melon, jack fruit etc. Of course, mangoes are the best.

While you are having summer, here in Kerala rains have started lashing and roads are getting flooded. We have many varieties of mangoes in the market which comes not only from Kerala but other states as well.

Good you don't have to depend on any one for mangoes. Lucky you have enough and more to distribute to your neighbors.

On the mango scene, what can I say?IN the south of Puerto Rico there are couple of companies with hugeorchards to export.In Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, agronomists are always experimentingto find the best species. Some of the scientists working in such projects come from your country.

At 57 I have rediscovered the pleasure of the fragrance, texture and colors of that fruit growingeverywhere in our American tropics,thanks to India.

Devika, thanks for the nice comment.Rinkly Rimes - hope you like Chennai that is Madras.T and S - mangoes are .....mangoes.Dinakar KR - Trees and plants have feelings, I feel.Capt. Anup Murthy - I have to agree with you. The mangoes in India taste sweeter.R. Ramakrishnan - you got it.Meera'sworld, Rajesh, Joseph, Suchitra - mangoes are, as I said, mangoes.Kallu - :)adee - such a sweet coupletThanks, Indrani, Kat and Anonymous.Antigonum Cajan, thanks for stopping by , and the comments.Maddy - do they taste as sweet as the Indian ones?

Talking about the HEAT of summer across India - if you did not have this kind of summer, you would not get to enjoy such lovely mangoes. The arid heat of Betamcherla or Cuddapah, the sultry heat of Assam. Enjoy your blessings. Be happy.

We are an online florists for delivery of flowers and cakes in Hyderabad and all over Andhra Pradesh. We do same day delivery for perishable items like cakes, flowers to Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Vizag and all over major Andhra Pradesh.http://www.hyderabadonnet.com

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Me

About Me

Nothing to do and all day to do it in, with some books, and music – my idea of a happy life. And I have nearly reached that point, having retired some time ago from a neigbourhood newspaper. Some habits, however, die hard, and I sometimes feel the need to put pen to paper.